The present invention refers to a device in a microtome in which a knife and a specimen are displaceable with respect to each other in two perpendicular planes so as to achieve a cutting movement and a feeding movement in the microtome.
In microtomes and ultramicrotomes, respectively, which are instruments for producing sample cuts to be studied in a microscope or an electron microscope, respectively, the sample cuts are produced by moving the sample block towards a knife edge from which the sample cut is cut off. This movement is repeated several times, the sample block being displaced between each cut, the size of this displacement being dependent upon the desired thickness of the cut.
In order to obtain the cutting movement the sample block is usually attached to one end of a long heavy arm, the opposite end of which can be tilted around an axis parallel to the knife edge. The long arm thereby makes the instrument long and space consuming. Furthermore, the cutting is carried out by means of letting the arm fall down subject to the gravity forces which means that the arm must be relatively heavy in order to obtain sufficient cutting forces.